JSE closes weaker after dormant session

Musa Makoni, EasyEquities

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Johannesburg - The JSE closed softer on Monday, following a rather dormant trading session.

The local index struggled to find a catalyst for direction due to the closure of US and UK markets for a public holiday. The day was subdued in terms of economic data, both locally and on the international front.

In terms of earnings results, Tongaat Hulett [JSE:TON], Telkom [JSE:TKG] and Reunert [JSE:RLO] released their results which mostly disappointed.

As a result the three stocks lost 2.75%, 3.6% and 4.6% respectively. Gold miners Harmony Gold [JSE:HAR] and Gold Fields [JSE:GFI] traded under pressure due to the weaker gold metal prices, which saw the stocks losing 6.46% and 1.77% respectively.

Aveng [JSE:AEG] slumped to reach a new all-time low of 30 cents per share after it had managed to open at 45c/share. The stock closed at 38c/share, down 11.63% for the day.

British American Tobacco [JSE:BTI] and Reinet [JSE:RNI] managed to gain 0.91% and 1.73% respectively, while Aspen [JSE:APN] managed to gain 2.92% to close at R252.97 per share.

Shoprite [JSE:SHP] bucked the trend recorded in other retailers to end the day 1.11% firmer.

The JSE All-Share Index eventually closed 0.10% weaker, while the JSE Top-40 Index gained only 0.02%. The Resources and Financials Indices lost 0.54% and 0.22% respectively, but the Industrials Index managed to add 0.27%.

The rand strengthened against the US dollar, despite the greenback trading firmer. After reaching a session high of R12.42/$, the local unit retraced marginally to trade at R12.44/$ at 17:00.

Gold broke below $1 300 per ounce to reach a session low of $1 295.60/oz, mainly on the back of the stronger US dollar.

The precious metal was trading at $1 298.84/oz at 17:00. Contrary to the direction in gold, platinum and palladium were firmer on the day, trading at $904.64/oz and $982.01/oz at 17:00.

Brent Crude continued to trade softer as it lost more than 2% to reach a session low of $74.49 per barrel.

It staged a small recovery to trade at $75.27/barrel just after the JSE close.

Ethereum slid by more than 6% to trade at $530.50 per coin at 17:00; however, the slide in Bitcoin was milder as the coin was down just over 1% to trade at $7 255.40 per coin.